I'm starting this painting with the underpainting for some blurry leaves. I've done this by blocking in my entire canvas with a very dark gray that I made by mixing mars black with some titanium white. Once the entire canvas was blocked in, I painted on even darker gray, and then white patches, using zigzag strokes with a filbert brush. Using a round brush, I painted marks of varying widths and lengths to represent leaves.

​I mixed a darkish gray by adding titanium white to my premixed gray color and, using a small round brush, painted leaf like shapes all over the canvas.

​Using the same technique as described in my last post, I painted black "leaves" all over the canvas. I painted titanium white and grey highlights on my dark gray leaves. I'm in the process of using a liner brush to paint darkish gray, black and white "branches" by making a shaky motion with my wrist as I move the lines down. I'm making mostly incomplete "v" and "x" patterns

​Here's the painting with the black and the white "branches" filled in.

I mixed hansa yellow light, ultramarine blue, transparent burnt umber, and ivory black to make a dark brownish green, which I glazed over the background. I decided it wasn't dark enough for me, though, so I mixed a color that included more ivory black. I wasn't satisfied, however, until I glazed straight ivory black all over the green of the background. I did this by mixing the paint with the medium to the point where it was pretty much a tinted medium. ​

​I've gone over the first tree from the left with a light brown made by mixing transparent mixing white with transparent burnt umber. I mixed some transparent burnt umber into gray made by mixing transparent mixing white with ivory black and glazed that over part of the ground. I also mixed quinacridone red into my brown and glazed that over part the tree in the far right. I put a fair amount of matte medium into all of these colors.

Here are my okapis transferred onto my painting.

Here's the underpainting for the okapis finished. ​

​I've started by glazing transparent burnt sienna all over the okapis whose bodies can be seen. I glazed transparent raw umber for the darker shadows on the first okapis body. I have more work to do on that still, but for now I'm working on the gray and white patches.

I glazed quinacridone red over multiple layers of transparent burnt sienna on the first okapi to brighten it. Then I mixed gray from transparent mixing white and ivory black and, using a small round brush, painted streaks and swirls of this shade where appropriate. That's when I could see the painting coming together. ​

​I glazed hansa yellow over the white of this okapis head. I went over it with a wet brush to tone it down.

I glazed grayish blue over this okapi's neck.

​I glazed magenta over the brown in both of the okapi's bodies.

I added a horn and an ear to the okapi on the far right and the painting is finished!